Word.ws English Dictionary

dimber-damber

dimber-damber is the alternative form of dimber damber.

Meaning of dimber damber

Noun

dimber damber (plural dimber dambers)

  1. (UK, obsolete, thieves' cant) The leader of a group of thieves or vagrants.
    • First, a new name is given him, by which he is ever after to be called; then, standing up in the middle of the assembly, and directing his face to the dimber damber, or principal man of the gang, he repeats the following oath, which is dictated to him by some experienced member of the fraternity.1812, Robert Goadby, The Surprising Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, new edition, original published 1745, W. Salter Tiverton, page 280
    Synonyms:
    criminal leader

Noun capitalized: Dimber-Damber

Dimber-Damber (plural Dimber-Dambers)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of dimber damber.
    • Then standing up in the middle of the fraternity, and directing his face to the Dimber-Damber, or prince of the gang, he swears, in this manner, as is dictated to him by one of the most experienced:1860, John Fellows, The mysteries of freemasonry, page 224
    • When each gipsy Dimber-Damber Wraps him in a sheet of amber, When the smiling glow-worm skims O'er the ice-berg, singing hymns, When electric organs roar Round sad Staffa's dismal door, and the mermaid seeks her den, Eating oysters — watch me then.1868, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch - Volumes 54-55, page 61

Forms of dimber-damber

pluraldimber-dambers
pluralDimber-Dambers

Questions about dimber-damber

What is dimber-damber the alternative form of?
Dimber-damber is the alternative form of dimber damber.
What part of speech is dimber-damber?
Dimber-damber is a noun.
What is the plural of dimber-damber?
The plural of dimber-damber is dimber-dambers.

Words near dimber-damber in the dictionary

  1. dimber coves
  2. dimber damber
  3. dimber dambers
  4. dimber mort
  5. dimber morts
  6. dimber-damber
  7. dimber-dambers
  8. dimbilal
  9. dimble
  10. Dimbleby
  11. dimbles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dimber-damber (page history and authors); Dimber-Damber (page history and authors); dimber damber (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “dimber-damber.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dimber-damber. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.